{"id":343951,"date":"2026-03-23T16:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343951\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T16:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:58:09","slug":"six-dead-in-24-hours-after-multiple-crashes-around-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343951\/","title":{"rendered":"Six dead in 24 hours after multiple crashes around NZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Footage<\/p>\n

\nIn Auckland, northbound lanes were blocked on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning.
\nPhoto: Supplied\/ NZTA traffic camera\n<\/p>\n

Six people have died in 24 hours in crashes in Waikato, Taranaki, Auckland, Waiohau and Southland.<\/p>\n

Southland<\/p>\n

One person has died in Invercargill after fleeing police.<\/p>\n

Shortly before 3am, police signalled for a vehicle to stop on Kelvin Street, Invercargill, but the driver fled the scene.<\/p>\n

Police said it was not pursued, but found the vehicle crashed at the intersection of Leet and Kelvin Streets a short time later.<\/p>\n

One person died at the scene.<\/p>\n

The road was closed while the Serious Crash Unit examined the scene and the matter will also be referred to the IPCA<\/p>\n

Any witnesses to the crash, or anybody who has CCTV in the vicinity of Wellesley Avenue, Avenal Street or Kelvin Street, have been asked to get in touch with police.<\/p>\n

Another person died in a single-vehicle crash along Winding Creek Road in Southland overnight.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to the rural road about 12.40am.<\/p>\n

One other person suffered moderate injuries.<\/p>\n

Waikato<\/p>\n

Waikato police said on Sunday morning a person died following a single-vehicle crash on Howden Road, to the west of Hamilton city in Temple View. The crash happened about 8:30pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Auckland<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, blocked lanes on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway at Onehunga were reopened by 9:30am Sunday, after a collision earlier in the morning. Two vehicles were involved in the crash on the State Highway 20 motorway, police said.<\/p>\n

One person was killed and two others moderately injured.<\/p>\n

Stratford<\/p>\n

Early this evening, police said one person has died after a single vehicle crash on SH43 \/ Forgotten World Highway in Stratford this morning.<\/p>\n

The crash was reported to police at 11.30am, and the road remains closed.<\/p>\n

Waiohau<\/p>\n

A sixth person died after a single-vehicle crash on Galatea Road, Waiohau, at about 5.15pm.<\/p>\n

The sole occupant of the vehicle was found dead.<\/p>\n

Police said the road was closed and diversions are in place.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Auckland, northbound lanes were blocked on the South-Western Motorway, SH20, at Onehunga, on Sunday morning. Photo: Supplied\/…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-343951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}